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Bishops praised and pilloried

1st June 2020 By

What the papers said in the week ending May 30th

No escape from Covid-19: the easing of restrictions is providing encouragement but some people feel this is being allowed too soon, as infection rates and death rates remain high.

Religion and religious leaders continue to have their voices heard in the media:

  • Bishops united in their condemnation of the behaviour of Dominic Cummings, Special Adviser to Boris Johnson. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/may/25/dominic-cummings-draws-condemnation-from-across-uk-society
  • https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/may/25/bishops-turn-on-boris-johnson-for-defending-dominic-cummings
  • They were rewarded by death threats and advice that religion should have no part in politics https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-52804464
  • Their views were welcomed and shared by many who have written to their MPs and look for sound ethical and moral leadership at this and all times. This is not something which people want to see swept under the carpet – and ‘move on’. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/may/29/constituents-bombard-mps-with-180000-emails-about-dominic-cummings

The Church of England, and perhaps other Churches and faith communities. are promising to organise nationwide services for the bereaved, which includes all of us, when circumstances allow. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/29/religious-leaders-plan-events-to-remember-uk-coronavirus-victims There are murmurings which suggest that return to versions of communal worship will become possible before long

The accumulated number of excess deaths continues to rise – now over 60,000 compared with an ordinary year https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/26/uk-coronavirus-deaths-weekly-covid-19

Consequences of the crisis include paralysis of the legal system. https://www.theguardian.com/law/2020/may/24/uk-faces-backlog-of-400000-criminal-cases-due-to-coronavirus

Change of life style in the lock-down has affected the genders unequally:

  • Women have taken on multiple additional roles in the home and community, lost jobs and may not be able to return to them – some jobs will not be there.
  • There are fears that this will damage to the progress toward equality which has been gained in recent decades https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/may/29/we-are-losers-in-this-crisis-research-finds-lockdowns-reinforcing-gender-inequality

Care Homes continue to report new cases and more deaths:

  • There are suggestions that advice to enact a model like that which has been successful in Hong Kong and other countries was provided to our government by Public Health leaders in April, but was set aside https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/28/government-rejected-radical-lockdown-england-care-homes-coronavirus
  • https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/28/why-did-so-many-people-die-of-covid-19-in-the-uks-care-homes
  • People are now dying in Homes which in earlier weeks seemed to have survived with great care and discipline. The virus is not yet gone away.

Research from the University of Exeter raises the possibility that the genetic variant ApoE-e4 renders people more vulnerable to severe effects of Covid-19:

  • ApoE-e4 is associated with development of Alzheimer’s disease, but it is said that the genetic vulnerability to Covid-19 is independent of the presence or absence of Alzheimer’s.  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/26/research-reveals-gene-role-in-both-dementia-and-severe-covid-19
  • https://www.sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-covid-19-genetic-risk-factors-alzheimers-disease
  • https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200526091412.htm

WHO has stopped a trial of President Trump’s wild-card hunch that the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine might be protective against Covid-19. People taking the drug were more likely to die than controls. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52799120

Windrush: On another important matter, not quite excluded from the headlines, we are shamed to know that only 60 people out of 1,275 who have applied for compensation for damage by the Windrush scandal have yet received any money. Payments to most of those 60 have been modest https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/may/28/windrush-scandal-only-60-victims-given-compensation-so-far

It is good news for the older generation that JK Rowling is releasing a serialised story of the Ickabog – for us to read with the youngsters. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/26/jk-rowling-announces-new-childrens-book-the-ickabog-to-be-published-free-online

Bob Weighton, a Briton and former teacher and engineer, who was the world’s oldest man, has died at 112. He lived independently and busily to the end https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/may/28/worlds-oldest-man-dies-in-hampshire-aged-112

The regular Thursday evening community clap for the NHS and others may have been abandoned. It has brought people together: Is this the last hurrah for clap for carers?

David Jolley

 

Filed Under: NEWS

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Speaking Out

There are some things which just have to be said.  We have to speak out because at the heart of the Christian message is our belief that God is not silent.  God has spoken through creation itself and the evolving universe; through the human story; through the dwelling of Jesus Christ in time; through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the Church and in each believer; through the inspiration of the scriptures; and through the wisdom and the teaching of the Church through the ages.

We use words all the time.  Words of welcome.  Words of wisdom.  Words of warmth.  Words of warning.  Words of wistfulness.  Our words are wasted if words are just words.   In the beginning was the Word.  And the Word was with God.  And the Word was God.  Through him all things came to be, not one thing had its being but through him.   The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The Word made things happen.

As Christians, as followers of the Word, we do something about what we have heard.  Our own best words are our actions.

Please tell us what you would like us to Speak Out about by contacting:  info@ccoa.org.uk

 

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